Congress hears dispute about automatic train braking

Feb. 26, 2014
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FILE- In this Dec. 1, 2013 file photo, cars from a Metro-North passenger train are scattered after the train derailed in the Bronx neighborhood of New York. Although the train had an automatic breaking system that might have prevented the crash, but at the time it wasnít set up to enforce speed limits on the curve where the wreck happened. The accident killed four people and injured over 60. (AP Photo/Edwin Valero, File) ORG XMIT: NYR401 / Edwin Valero AP

by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Railroads warned Congress again Wednesday they wouldn't meet a 2015 deadline for automatic braking on trains, but engineers and safety officials urged adoption of the technology that might have prevented the fatal Metro North crash in New York this past December.

Freight railroads have spent $4 billion for braking equipment for trains to sense speed limits and track signals automatically, but the effort could ultimately cost that industry $8 billion, according to Edward Hamberger, CEO of the Association of American Railroads.

Hamberger told the House Transportation subcommittee on railroads that the task remains complex and the Federal Communications Commission has hindered installing 22,000 poles along western tracks that are crucial to the project.

Meanwhile, commuter railroads say they need federal funding to pay for their share of hundreds of millions of dollars need to install the equipment in train cars and along tracks called Positive Train Control (PTC).

Michael Melaniphy, president of the American Public Transportation Association, said his group supports automatic braking, but that it has been warning since 2010 it wouldn't meet the 2015 congressional deadline.

"There is no ready-made, off-the-shelf product for this new technology," Melaniphy said. "The nation will not be well-served by shutting down important commuter-rail operations if they are unable to implement PTC by the deadline."

But John Tolman, vice president and national legislative representative for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said railroads are failing to install the equipment even in the face of a congressional act, but that lawmakers shouldn't grant a blanket delay.

"I often wonder if we could turn back the clock how many lives we could have saved," Tolman said. "Those who have given their lives deserve to be honored by saying 'enough is enough' with the delay and foot-dragging."

Robert Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, noted that 76 people were injured last May in a Metro-North derailment in Bridgeport, Conn., and four people died with 59 injured when a Metro-North train derailed in December in the Bronx, N.Y.

Metro-North lowered the speeds on risky areas of track after the December crash. But Sumwalt said lives depend on installing automatic braking, so regulators should closely monitor any delays or failures to install it.

"After all, NTSB's files are filled with accidents that could have been prevented with PTC," Sumwalt said. "For each and every day that PTC is delayed, the risk of an accident remains."

Since 2005, the NTSB has investigated 15 train accidents in which 50 people were killed and 942 people were injured. In each case, the board concluded that PTC would have prevented the accident.

The dispute comes at a time of relative railroad safety, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Total train accidents have declined 47% in the last decade, dropping from 19 per million miles in 2004 to 14.9 per million miles last year, according to the agency. Fatalities dropped from 895 per year to 779, during that period, the agency said.

The agency is reviewing safety aspects of the December Metro-North crash and plans a report by March 16.

"FRA's mission is to enable the safe, reliable and efficient movement of people and goods for a strong America, now and in the future," FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo said.